(v. t.) To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.
(v. i.) A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside.
(v. i.) A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks."
(v. i.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.
(v. i.) A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
(v. i.) A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
(v. i.) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball.
(v. t.) To leave or make balks in.
(v. t.) To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
(v. t.) To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to /hwart; as, to balk expectation.
(v. i.) To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
(v. i.) To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks.
(v. i.) To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.
Example Sentences:
(1) Since the first is balked by the obstacle of deficit reduction, emphasis has turned to the second.
(2) The US and its allies are balking at Iranian demands for all UN sanctions to be lifted at the start of a deal.
(3) The eastern European nations balked at the “emergency brake” on benefits to EU migrants.
(4) Critics balk at the original asking price of $399, but the initial stock sells out in five hours.
(5) In recent years, though, a number of his near comtemporaries – notably Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen – have been revitalised by taking on the kind of touring schedules that many a younger artist might balk at.
(6) To attract support from moderate Republicans who balked at the plan, an additional $8bn was included over five years to fund so-called high-risk pools that would help subsidize people with preexisting conditions.. Health policy experts have argued the fix is insufficient.
(7) One government source said: "Patrick McLoughlin is not balking at these ideas, which are interesting.
(8) Her work, which tackles the problems women face in Egypt and across the world, has always attracted outrage, but she never seems to have balked at this; she has continued to address controversial issues such as prostitution, domestic violence and religious fundamentalism in her writing.
(9) Young parents who have seen their tax credits cut and wages stagnate might balk at George Osborne’s repeated claims that “the economic plan is working”.
(10) Duration of treadmill exercise on a Balke treadmill protocol increased similarly in the two groups, 62% in the older group (from 8.9 to 14.3 minutes) and 40% in the younger group (from 12.2 to 17.1 minutes) (p = NS).
(11) The Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan , could step in to save jobs at his stricken former company JJB Sports, which is searching for a buyer after shareholders balked at pumping more cash into the troubled chain.
(12) Republicans in the house have already balked at the $50bn in immediate relief for Sandy that went to the house on Tuesday.
(13) It has been known for weeks that the US balked at Germany’s demand for a no-spy agreement, in part because of the precedent it would set for other countries that might also ask not to be spied on, and in part because Germany , which has limited spy capabilities, had nothing to offer in trade.
(14) Distribution of mitoses and dead hepatocytes in the hepatic balk was investigated.
(15) The new service unveiled on Friday will allow viewers who balk at a monthly Sky pay-TV subscription to access on-demand content including the BBC iPlayer, Facebook and Sky News.
(16) I think we balk at commercialising babies for the same reason that there's no provision under law for financial compensation if you lose a loved one.
(17) The misery of the left was, in the 1980s, matched by the triumphalism of the free marketeers, who had transformed Britain beyond many of their wildest ambitions, and began to balk at the restraints put on their dreams by the European project.
(18) Any Moldy Peach diehards balking at the idea of Green duetting with someone other than Dawson are missing out, though: this record sounds as though he and Shapiro have known each other for ever.
(19) Many countries, including major ones, won’t be willing to make their mitigation commitment legally binding at the international level, and once some balk, the premise of a legal form applicable to all unravels,” he said.
(20) Balking as never before at being the EU's cashpoint, Germany has been the main obstacle, although others have also hidden behind Berlin and quietly egged it on.
Check
Definition:
(n.) A word of warning denoting that the king is in danger; such a menace of a player's king by an adversary's move as would, if it were any other piece, expose it to immediate capture. A king so menaced is said to be in check, and must be made safe at the next move.
(n.) A condition of interrupted or impeded progress; arrest; stop; delay; as, to hold an enemy in check.
(n.) Whatever arrests progress, or limits action; an obstacle, guard, restraint, or rebuff.
(n.) A mark, certificate, or token, by which, errors may be prevented, or a thing or person may be identified; as, checks placed against items in an account; a check given for baggage; a return check on a railroad.
(n.) A written order directing a bank or banker to pay money as therein stated. See Bank check, below.
(n.) A woven or painted design in squares resembling the patten of a checkerboard; one of the squares of such a design; also, cloth having such a figure.
(n.) The forsaking by a hawk of its proper game to follow other birds.
(n.) Small chick or crack.
(v. t.) To make a move which puts an adversary's piece, esp. his king, in check; to put in check.
(v. t.) To put a sudden restraint upon; to stop temporarily; to hinder; to repress; to curb.
(v. t.) To verify, to guard, to make secure, by means of a mark, token, or other check; to distinguish by a check; to put a mark against (an item) after comparing with an original or a counterpart in order to secure accuracy; as, to check an account; to check baggage.
(v. t.) To chide, rebuke, or reprove.
(v. t.) To slack or ease off, as a brace which is too stiffly extended.
(v. t.) To make checks or chinks in; to cause to crack; as, the sun checks timber.
(v. i.) To make a stop; to pause; -- with at.
(v. i.) To clash or interfere.
(v. i.) To act as a curb or restraint.
(v. i.) To crack or gape open, as wood in drying; or to crack in small checks, as varnish, paint, etc.
(v. i.) To turn, when in pursuit of proper game, and fly after other birds.
(a.) Checkered; designed in checks.
Example Sentences:
(1) If the method was taken into routine use in a diagnostic laboratory, the persistence of reverse passive haemagglutination reactions would enable grouping results to be checked for quality control purposes.
(2) 119 representatives of this population were checked in their sexual contacts; of these, 13 persons proved to be infected with HIV.
(3) In 14 of the patients the imaging results were checked against the histological findings of a subsequent thymectomy, which revealed four thymomas and (with the exception of one normal thymus) hyperplastic changes in all the others.
(4) The results indicated that 48% of the sample either regularly checked their own skin or had it checked by another person (such as a spouse), and 17% had been screened by a general practitioner in the preceding 12 months.
(5) The government has blamed a clumsily worded press release for the furore, denying there would be random checks of the public.
(6) Photosynthetic activity of the cells was checked by placing the cell evenly illuminated in a (14)CO(2) atmosphere.
(7) The system of automated diagnosis makes it possible to significantly increase the quality and efficacy of wide-scale prophylactic check-ups of the population.
(8) I'll admit to not having realised that more than £100bn would be committed to Trident – I half-remembered reading that it would cost £20bn, so went online, only to discover that the higher figure checks out .
(9) After a four-week period on a placebo, hypertensive smokers were treated with slow-release nicardipine 40 mg twice daily for six months and were checked at the end of the placebo period, after the first dose of nicardipine and at the end of six months of therapy.
(10) Adverse events and life status were checked at regular intervals.
(11) His bracelets and his hair, neatly gathered in a colourful elasticated band, contrast with his unflashy day-to-day uniform of checked shirts, jeans or cheap chinos and trainers.
(12) Other details showed the wrong patient undergoing a heart procedure, and the wrong patient given an invasive colonoscopy to check their bowel.
(13) Also remember that each time you apply for a loan your credit record is checked, which will leave a footprint of the search.
(14) Check out the latest bill from Russia's parliament, the Duma: its aim is to ban the "unnecessary" usage of foreign words (in cases where there is a pre-existing Russian counterpart).
(15) Once outside the body they can be purified, expanded in culture, and checked via genome sequencing to ensure the editing has been successful.
(16) Indeed, the geographical nature of the division also keeps a check on the club's carbon footprint – Dartford rarely have to travel far outside the M25, with the trips to Bognor Regis and Margate about as distant as they get.
(17) No sick or dead monkeys were found in all the forests checked around Entebbe area during the epizootic.
(18) I tweet, check Facebook, chat with friends, keep in touch with colleagues, check in using Foursquare, use it to check work emails from home and organise notes using Evernote.
(19) At the centre of the Zyed and Bouna deaths is the continuing issue of police controls, stop and searches and identity checks.
(20) And all senior management will be required to drive Toyota vehicles and check where the problems lie.